Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta was charged on Monday with several counts of corruption in a long running high profile criminal investigation.
Forty-two-year-old Ponta was charged with fraud, tax evasion, money laundering and making false statements, reported the Associated Press. All charges against him date back between 2007 and 2011 before he became prime minister in 2012.
Romania's National Anti-corruption Directorate, known by its acronym DNA, accused Ponta of receiving $61,000 from Dan Sova, according to DW. Ponta's close ally and a former minister Dan Sova has been under investigation for his firm's contracts with two energy companies for more than a year, according to Romania Insider.
"Prosecutors ordered a stepping-up of the penal action against the defendant Ponta, a lawyer at the time of the deeds ... on charges of forgery of documents - 17 counts - accessory to tax evasion... and money laundering," DNA said in a statement, according to Reuters.
Ponta announced that he would give up his leadership position in the Social Democratic Party (PSD). But he said he would not resign as Prime Minister. "It would be a betrayal. If I resigned, I would give the power back to those who destroyed Romania," he said, according to the Associated Press.
"In the party, I found a formula in which those who are now in charge, Rovana Plumb (e.n. - the Labor Minister) and my other colleagues, can very well lead the party forward, especially as this fall we start to prepare for the local elections and then the parliamentary elections. In the Government, things are a little different. I'm not irreplaceable, but I have several projects that I've started and I need to finish," he explained rationale behind not resigning as prime m, according to Romania Insider.
